Best Documentaries

Compiled 2026-10-24. The main table copies the documentary countdown published on 2022-09-20 and modified the same day, 100 films in all. No. 1 is James Marsh’s Man on Wire (2008). No. 100 is Kenny Ortega’s Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009). The publish date, the modified date, and the compile date stay separate. The top 10 and the top 25 are the first 10 and first 25 rows of this table.

The 100 films

All 100 rows follow the countdown. Years and directors are copied from the page.

How this ranking was built

Compiled 2026-10-24. The list was published 2022-09-20 and modified the same day, 2022-09-20. Rotten Tomatoes posted it. Alex Vo is the byline. The page title is 100 Best-Reviewed Documentaries of All Time. The page runs from No. 1 to No. 100, and this table follows that order. The top 10 and the top 25 are the first 10 and first 25 rows.

The live page on 2026-10-24 printed all 100 titles. Director names are the Directed By lines. Every film is Certified Fresh with at least 100 reviews, and the order follows the Tomatometer.

Chinese and Russian titles are Wikidata labels. Chinese labels are simplified.

16 films have no Chinese Wikidata label, so the Chinese cell keeps the English title: No. 2 Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), No. 10 Anvil! The Story of Anvil, No. 18 Spellbound, No. 33 The Rescue, No. 40 The Queen of Versailles, No. 48 Control Room, No. 50 The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, No. 64 Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World, No. 66 Best of Enemies, No. 70 Dave Chappelle's Block Party, No. 73 Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, No. 74 Tarnation, No. 79 Young at Heart, No. 81 Shut Up and Sing, No. 83 The Corporation, No. 92 Gunner Palace. 46 films keep the English title in the Russian cell.

The picture

Rows S through D hold all 100 films, 20 a row. The drag-and-drop pool is the same 100 films.